BAD BOY SUPERSUMMARY
COPYRIGHT 2018
Of course, it‖s undeniably the case that being black in America carried many
disadvantages with it at the time when Myers was growing up. As Myers puts it,
“Blacks were the ones who were lynched, blacks were the ones who were barred
from hotels, who had to drink from dirty fountains, who had to look for signs that
told them if their race was welcome” (178-79). Dr. Holiday‖s point, however, isn‖t to
disregard the real obstacles black Americans faced, but rather to prompt Myers to
challenge his own acceptance of these limitations. Although Myers has certainly
aspired to a life beyond what most people he knows are facing, he has done so by
attempting to, in his words, “reject [his] identity as a black and take another
identity”—most obviously, by modeling his own writing on that of various white
authors (179). Ultimately, however, these efforts prove pointless, because—as
Myers himself recognizes—identity isn‖t just a matter of personal choice: “Being
Afro-American, or black, was being imposed on me by people who had their own
ideas of what those terms meant” (177). In other words, part of personal identity
stems from the perceptions of others, as well as from social context more broadly.
That being the case, Myers can‖t simply refuse to be black, but he can find ways of
thinking about that identity positively.
At this point in his life, however, Myers isn‖t able to think of his race in these terms.
Instead, he attempts to embrace an identity as an outcast who doesn‖t truly fit into
either black or white society. This is in large part why Frank‖s friendship appeals to
Myers; Frank is also an outsider, not only by virtue of his criminal record, but also
(having grown up in a white neighborhood) in racial terms. However, Myers‖s
connection to Frank ultimately leads him into trouble, and it‖s unclear in any case
whether it‖s truly possible to base a sense of community solely on shared social
isolation; as Myers admits, “Frank didn‖t read, and we didn‖t have a lot to talk about
except what was bothering us” (161). Myers‖s attempts to identify with literary
outsiders are similarly unproductive. After reading The Stranger, for instance,
Myers tries to imitate Camus by describing his experiences from a detached and
clinical perspective, but ultimately finds himself resembling the character more than
the writer. Embracing his outsider status, in other words, does not give Myers the
feeling of control over his life that he currently lacks.
With all that said, this period of Myers‖s life isn‖t a complete waste. Although Myers
suffers the effects of having few writers like himself to look up to, the works he
does read prompt him to think about his writing in new ways. Penguin Island, for
instance, teaches Myers that a novel can be “less about what [Myers] considered to
be the classic story form—the interplay between characters at a point of crisis—
than […]about a broad presentation of the author‖s point of view” (145). On an even
more basic level, the personalized reading lists Myers‖s teachers provide him with